Category Archives: Technical Discussions

Warning: This is a Geek Level 3 article. If you aren't into that kind of thing, go take some pictures. I've been writing and discussing the copy-to-copy variation that inevitably occurs in lenses since 2008. (1,2,3,4) Many people don't want to hear about it. Manufacturers don't want to acknowledge some of their lenses aren't quite as [...]

When Lensrentals.com first got the first Canon 5Ds and 5D sr cameras in stock, Aaron and I immediately started screaming that we wanted to take one apart. It turns out we received enough 5Ds cameras to let us have a day with one to do just that. Of course, we don't expect to find out anything [...]

Like everybody else, we're pretty excited to get our hands on Canon's new 5DS and 5DS R. There are already a lot of hands-on articles about the cameras that probably have told you more than you need to know to make your purchase decision. Of course, for most of the Canon shooters who read this [...]

I've been blogging about testing and taking apart camera equipment for almost a decade. Lensrentals.com has many thousand lenses these days, and they all get used frequently. When you have lots of lenses and they get used frequently, stuff gets inside them. Usually the stuff that gets inside is dust. Our repair techs open up [...]

We get to do some fun things through our testing company, Olaf Optical Testing. A lot of it I can't talk about but sometimes we get a project that we can share. One of these came up recently when Matt Leeg asked us if we were interested in testing and cleaning an Angenieux 25mm f/0.95 [...]

We've become fans of the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD lens since we first tested it optically, but we haven't really been inside of one yet. It's not that we weren't curious. We've just been trying to get through the week before and after Memorial Day, typically one of the busier times of the [...]

We got a pre-release set of Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 G OSS Macro lenses in for preliminary testing last week, and I was kind of excited about this lens for a couple of reasons. First it simply gives me a nice short telephoto prime option that has been lacking in the lineup (although the Zeiss [...]

Those of you who read our teardowns know that we commonly are tearing down Canon or Nikon mount lenses. The reasons are pretty simple and it basically comes down to the fact that we have a lot more of those lenses. If we have a lot more it's less of a problem to take a [...]

Most of you know I've been very impressed with Sigma's new Art lenses. Their 35mm f/1.4 Art I still think is the sharpest 35mm prime lens made. The 50mm f/1.4 Art is also superb. When I heard about the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens, I had some mixed emotions. I was excited that we might [...]

Sometimes I put up posts basically because I find myself answering the same email over-and-over. One of the emails I get a lot is: "I want the best copy of the xxxx zoom lens." People get irritated because my response is usually something like this: Which focal length do you want the best copy at? [...]